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Posted by Cole JonesMarch 16th, 2012 at 2:16 PM Filed Under NFC Briefs
According to 4-Traders, near field communication (NFC) products have been introduced by Identive Group, the radio frequency identification (RFID) provider, using Sony’s FeliCa Lite chip technology.
Posted by Seth PlanckJanuary 27th, 2012 at 12:32 PM Filed Under Latest News
Nintendo Wii U controller to rock NFC to enhance gaming
NFC got another boost today as Satoru Iwata, President of Nintendo, announced that the Wii U controller would feature NFC “function”. The Wii U controller is set to be compatible with both FeliCa for its home audience and MIFARE for the rest of the world. The President of Nintendo even acknowledged that NFC “is expected to be widely used around the world in the near future.”
Posted by Seth PlanckJanuary 25th, 2012 at 9:09 PM Filed Under Latest News
NFC to speed up currency exchange due to added security according to Currencies Direct
Currency Exchange can be expensive and take a lot of time, but the question being asked is whether NFC mobile wallets will speed up that process. Currencies Direct, a UK based non-bank currency exchange firm, think it will and they don’t mind saying why. We here at NFC Rumors have focused on a somewhat related part of the NFC payments ecosystem called remittance payments. This is where migrant workers or even just friends can send money from one another via their NFC smartphones by using a mobile wallet. These remote payments are expected to grow to a staggering $22.5 billion dollars by 2014, and no doubt Currencies Direct aims to be part of that lucrative new ecosystem. The process is near instantaneous and has been being used with SMS technology for years in Africa with the M-Pesa service.
Posted by Seth PlanckJanuary 23rd, 2012 at 3:15 PM Filed Under Latest News
BlackBerry NFC tag issues appear to be a thing of the past
NFC tag issues have plagued the beleaguered BlackBerry NFC smartphones for some months now. You have probably heard the news that the Co-CEO’s over at RIM have stepped down from the firm today. Something that is ironical with that announcement is that BlackBerry issues with NFC appear to be a thing of the past and people are doing some great things with NFC tags these days, but we’ll get to that in a bit. Over at CES a couple of weeks ago we got to speak with one of BlackBerry’s NFC product managers who told us that he didn’t know of any problems reading NFC tags these days since the BlackBerry OS 7.1 update. He invited us to send over all manner of NFC tags and said that the firm would test them out in their labs. We may well hit up some of our friends at some NFC tag manufacturers and put that to the test as there are so many NFC tag types these days and it would be great if RIM tested them all in their labs.
Posted by Seth PlanckJanuary 20th, 2012 at 5:24 PM Filed Under Events, Latest News, Rumor
Mobile World Congress NFC rumors leaking left, right and center
Mobile World Congress is coming up this next month, and rumors are rife over here at NFC Rumors about all kinds of announcements that are likely to be made. We have been so busy with our CES coverage that we have just been stacking them up, but we know you love some good rumors from industry insiders, so we thought we would let some fly. As usual our NFC rumors come from individuals on the inside of the industry. Yep, those in the know. They tell us what they can, but often have to leave out some details so they don’t identify themselves with specific knowledge that only a few know. So, think what will you of the rumors, and let’s just see which ones come to pass.
Posted by Seth PlanckJanuary 19th, 2012 at 1:21 PM Filed Under Latest News
WDC Helsinki 2012 launches NFC apps and UPM RFID NFC tag smart posters
NFC is being used more and more in large scale events and WDC Helsinki 2012 is no exception. The World Design Capital (WDC) is chosen every two years and this time around Helsinki has been chosen along with other Finnish cities Espoo, Vantaa, Kauniainen and Lahti. The objective of the World Design Capital year is to improve the daily lives and environment of the residents and to develop public services and business activities through design.
Posted by Seth PlanckJanuary 18th, 2012 at 11:38 AM Filed Under Latest News
Inside Secure supports new Kovio RF Barcode ready NFC tags
Inside Secure has announced that it now supports the Kovio RF Barcode ready NFC tags in its Open NFC protocol stack. Okay, that may be a bit of a clunky headline, so allow us to explain why this is big news and what it means for the adoption of NFC on the whole. The overall goal of NFC tags has been to allow them to become very cost effective, especially for retail usage. The concept that has been flying around over the last few years has been printed NFC tags that use printed silicon to achieve mass market penetration at a fraction of the cost of conventional NFC tags.
Posted by Seth PlanckJanuary 17th, 2012 at 2:51 PM Filed Under Galleries, Latest News
Sprint Galaxy Nexus and LG Viper hands-on during private CES event
As you may or may not have heard over at CES, Sprint announced that it is going to carry the Galaxy Nexus and the LG Viper NFC smartphones. Well, photographs and details have been very thin on the ground. This is especially true of the LG Viper, which wasn’t even present at the LG booth at CES. What many people didn’t know is that Sprint held a private event over at CES and we were invited. The Galaxy Nexus and the LG Viper were there for some hands-on time and we had the opportunity to play a little.
Posted by Seth PlanckJanuary 16th, 2012 at 11:53 PM Filed Under Galleries, Latest News, Videos
BlackBerry Tag deployed already in OS 7.1 update with NFC goodness all round
You have probably heard of BlackBerry Tag and its NFC capabilities. We popped over to the Blackberry booth at CES to see Blackberry Tag in action so we could see improvements made to the way the OS deals with NFC. Although we couldn’t see how the new 7.1 OS deals with NFC tags, which was a major issue when the NFC capable BlackBerry smartphones launched, we did see its beaming or sharing features in action. We must say that BlackBerry Tag worked flawlessly in the demo we received from Annu Dawar, who is a Product Manager for Research in Motion.
Posted by Seth PlanckJanuary 05th, 2012 at 2:09 PM Filed Under Latest News
Google Nexus NFC tablet to cost just $199 suggests rumors
We reported a couple of weeks ago about Eric Schmidt’s comment to an Italian newspaper that suggested that Google was prepping a Google Nexus NFC tablet that would sport Ice Cream Sandwich. Schmidt told the newspaper in an interview that ”[In the] next six months we plan to market a tablet of the highest quality.” At that time we reached out to Google for clarification of what Eric meant when he made the comment and we hit the steely wall of silence from Google. Generally when we speak with Google we get responses pretty promptly with some pretty helpful information, so to not even get a no comment statement was a little odd.
Posted by Seth PlanckJanuary 05th, 2012 at 12:52 PM Filed Under NFC Briefs
WIMA NFC Monaco 2012 calls for papers to be submitted for its 2012 6th Global NFC Applications Products & Services Congress
As we mentioned in our last post WIMA Monaco is getting closer and here is the opportunity to present in front of delegates at the conference or have your paper published in the conference programme. WIMA generally attracts attendees and speakers from every facet of the burgeoning NFC ecosystem. This year there is also opportunities for Near Field Communication solution providers to make a joint presentation with an end user partner.
Posted by Seth PlanckJanuary 04th, 2012 at 5:38 PM Filed Under Latest News
UPM RFID collaborates with Freedom Shopping for RFID and NFC tags
Okay, so here’s another UPM RFID announcement about another partnership which again sees the Finnish firm extend its dominance in the NFC tags arena. UPM RFID are no strangers to partnerships, and in fact have built their successful model based on enabling others and their innovations with a litany of NFC tags mounted on many different inlays. Today, UPM RFID announces that it has partnered with Freedom Shopping to deliver RFID and NFC tags via Freedom Shopping’s online store.
UPM is known for its open approach to opportunities where the firm actively engages in partners’ projects to help get them off the ground. We cover UPM pretty closely, because like NXP and other core NFC firms, you can feel the beat of the NFC industry through firms who enable projects from the ground up. So, for better or worse firms like UPM, NXP, VeriFone, Google, Isis, Microsoft, Nokia and a few others get our attention when they make announcements. Whether that’s good attention or not depends on the firms in question and what they are doing within the NFC space.
Posted by Seth PlanckJanuary 04th, 2012 at 1:25 PM Filed Under Latest News
Broadcom brings NFC and apps to 2 billion existing TVs by converting them to Smart TVs
This morning sees Broadcom make an exciting announcement that is likely to change the way we use TV and, of course, incorporates NFC. We have seen the Boxee Box, we have seen Apple TV and we have seen Google TV and the Roku box. Many consumers are abandoning the airwaves in preference to connected apps on Smart TVs, but as yet there has been no NFC incorporated. That is set to change with this morning’s announcement from Broadcom, who are probably one of the largest semiconductor firms in the US.
Posted by Seth PlanckJanuary 04th, 2012 at 11:43 AM Filed Under Latest News
NFC Taxis hit multiple US cities with NBC & VeriFone as they partner for NFC based out-of-home marketing using NBC and Universal content
NBCUniversal has announced that along with VeriFone, it intends to advertise and interact with consumers in captive out-of-home locations starting with NFC taxis in multiple US cities. Consumers can expect to gain access to NBC’s news, information and entertainment programming in more than 12,000 taxi cabs as well as at thousands of gas stations which started a couple of days ago. NBC also plans to use NFC marketing on other digital out-of-home platforms in the future.
Posted by Seth PlanckJanuary 03rd, 2012 at 5:02 PM Filed Under Latest News
VeriFone completes Point acquisition solidifying the firm’s position in Northern Europe and also refinances some debt ready for NFC adoption by retailers
VeriFone appears to be growing larger and larger as today’s news announces that the firm has just completed its merger of Northern European payment gateway company Point. VeriFone has taken some stick lately when the expected NFC bonanza didn’t come in the 3rd quarter of last year. That fact is that NFC adoption by retailers is largely out of VeriFone’s hands as the wallet wars obstruct earlier deployment and therefore the need for NFC POS terminals. However, that isn’t preventing VeriFone from readying itself for the expected new NFC payments landscape as the firm continues to buy up competitors in strategic markets.
Posted by Seth PlanckJanuary 03rd, 2012 at 1:57 PM Filed Under Latest News
KPMG study finds that 23 percent of Americans very willing to use their smartphones as an NFC mobile wallet
KPMG has released its findings from a new survey it has conducted which found that 23% of Americans are “very willing” to use their NFC smartphones as mobile wallets. That is a quantum shift from where we were last May, but there are still concerns and obstacles to overcome before ubiquity happens. In fact, ubiquity isn’t really expected to happen until 2014, 2015 and onwards. Welcome to the year of NFC adoption.
Last year was the year of NFC discovery and early adopters, and 2012 is getting set up as the year of adoption and devices. Let’s not kid ourselves – 2012 is going to be a rocky path for NFC as it starts to gain traction and becomes a household name; but we will start to see more and more NFC devices hit the market, carriers start to embrace the technology and services to match. By this time next year, millions of consumers will have NFC smartphones and be using them as mobile wallets to varying degrees.
Posted by Seth PlanckJanuary 03rd, 2012 at 11:36 AM Filed Under Latest News
Sticky, sticky Ice Cream Sandwich & Android Beam on your Nexus S 4G
Waiting for Google to send out that magic Ice Cream Sandwich update for your Nexus S 4G can be hard, especially when you want the added Android Beam NFC capabilities now. As you will probably know by now, Google has chosen to update the GSM Nexus S before its Google Wallet-touting brethren. So, at this time Nexus S 4G owners are left waiting and lamenting about the update that hasn’t come. That doesn’t mean that Nexus S 4G owners can’t get their hands on Ice Cream Sandwich though. Yes, devs have been hard at work porting the ICS OS over to the Nexus S 4G. For those who don’t mind rooting their phone, that sweet sticky Ice Cream Sandwich update has arrived. As ever there are considerations you should take into account before attempting the update though.
Posted by Seth PlanckDecember 23rd, 2011 at 12:39 PM Filed Under Featured, Latest News
Merry Christmas (or whatever you celebrate) and an NFC New Year
Our team over here at NFC Rumors want to take the opportunity to thank everyone who swings past the site and wish them a great holiday season. It has been our first year and we have grown massively during that time because of your support for what we do. Over this year we have met some really great people, had the opportunity to immerse ourselves in great innovation and have been supported by our visitors and the companies who have come to embody Near Field Communication. We love bringing you the latest NFC news, adding our own opinion and starting conversations about the opportunities and challenges that NFC brings with it.
Posted by Seth PlanckDecember 22nd, 2011 at 11:41 AM Filed Under Latest News
UPM RFID sells NFC tag and RFID tag to SMARTRAC closes in Q1 2012
The news UPM RFID is selling its NFC tag and RFID inlay business to SMARTRAC hit early this morning. Since then, we have been wondering about the industry impacts this sale could have. SMARTRAC manufactures RFID inlays for electronic passports (e-passports) and contactless credit cards (e-payment) as well as for RFID transponders for public transportation applications. This year has been an acquisition year for SMARTRAC, who has also purchased Neology Inc. and KSW Microtec AG.
Posted by Seth PlanckDecember 21st, 2011 at 2:21 PM Filed Under Latest News
Verifone takes an NFC stock beating, perhaps unfairly, due to unrealistic market expectations
We all know who Verifone is if we are interested in NFC mobile wallets and NFC payments. They are undoubtedly the largest player in the NFC point-of-sale business globally, and they are involved in most NFC payment projects on some level in the very complex ecosystem. However, Verifone has recently taken a painful beating on its stock price, which we can see between December 5th, when it traded at $44 a share, to December 14th, when it had fallen to just $35 per share. Ouch! Their fourth quarter earnings call wasn’t even until December 14th, so something is happening in the perception of Verifone’s viability to turn a profit. We are not going to go into P/E growth and other associated investment indicators in this post; we want to concentrate more on why this has happened to Verifone versus the reality of the situation. This perception that investors are adopting also has larger scale impacts on the rest of the NFC industry and Verifone may just be the fall guy that kicks off something grander in scale.
Posted by Seth PlanckDecember 20th, 2011 at 4:04 PM Filed Under Featured, Latest News
ISIS tries to run internationally before masters crawling domestically
ISIS has said in an interview with Bloomberg that it has held discussions to explore international opportunities for their particular NFC mobile wallet and trusted service manager services. ISIS, as you probably know by this point, is a joint venture between AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile with one aim to control NFC mobile wallets and NFC payments for member mobile network operators subscribers. ISIS hasn’t launched anything at this point, and from the rumors we are hearing from industry insiders, they haven’t been able to put together a secure NFC mobile wallet despite putting pen to paper with C-Sam (a very capable NFC mobile wallet all by itself), Gemalto, and various other payment providers who include Visa, MasterCard, AMEX and Discover.
Posted by Seth PlanckDecember 20th, 2011 at 3:51 PM Filed Under Latest News
Coke uses Clear Channel for NFC marketing campaign in Singapore
Coca-Cola has launched an NFC marketing campaign in Singapore with ClearChannel that uses NFC stickers to interact with consumers’ NFC smartphones. The Coke campaign reputedly runs on Mobile Life!, which is ClearChannel’s NFC enabled network.
The NFC marketing campaign’s aim is to push Coke brands in a Christmas push for sales. The NFC marketing campaign ads are being displayed on bus shelters in Singapore and users simply tap their NFC smartphones against the NFC hotspot to gain the ability to download Christmas themed wallpapers and a special Fanta ringtone that echoes the music in a Fanta TV commercial in Singapore. Marketing-Interactive reports that the campaign also includes QR codes for folks who don’t have an NFC smartphone as yet.
Posted by Seth PlanckDecember 19th, 2011 at 3:42 PM Filed Under Latest News, Rumor
Eric Schmidt hints at Google Nexus NFC tablet mid 2012
It’s great when Eric Schmidt does an interview, he knows just how to let things slip, and in a recent interview with Italian newspaper, Corriere della Sera, he mentioned a previously unheard of Google Nexus tablet. He added that this tablet would be of the highest quality. We bet it is an NFC tablet due to Google’s massive investment in the technology, but that is pure speculation. On the other hand, because this has been taken from a foreign translation it could merely mean that Google are going to push tablets made by manufacturing partners. Eric Schmidt said via Google translation that “in the next six months we plan to market a tablet of the highest quality.”
Posted by Seth PlanckDecember 19th, 2011 at 12:25 PM Filed Under Latest News
Google Wallet on Verizon Galaxy Nexus root free so it is safe to use!
Over the weekend we let you know the clever devs over at XDA Developers had rooted and hacked Google Wallet on to the Verizon Galaxy Nexus. We also advised that Galaxy Nexus owners should hold off from hacking the Verizon Galaxy Nexus because rooting the device could expose some sensitive data that a thief could get hold of. Just a day later and XDA Developers has released a version of the Google Wallet APK that doesn’t require rooting the device, and so you can now install the NFC mobile wallet safely!
Posted by Seth PlanckDecember 18th, 2011 at 12:50 PM Filed Under Latest News
Google Wallet already hacked to work on Verizon Galaxy Nexus
It has been a couple of days since the Galaxy Nexus has been launched on Verizon sans Google Wallet. Verizon is charging $299 for the latest Ice Cream Sandwich, NFC touting smartphone, and Amazon has already half priced it down to $149.99. The Free Press has written a letter to the FCC requesting that Verizon is investigated for not allowing Google Wallet on its network and for what the organization calls “blocking the app”. Well, the developers over at XDA-Developers have already hacked Google Wallet to work on the Galaxy Nexus on Verizon’s network. It’s been a busy week for the Galaxy Nexus. The news that the Galaxy Nexus can run Google Wallet, however, has been tempered by a report that some insecurities have been found in Google Wallet when running on a rooted NFC smartphone.


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If you think Apple’s previous announced 9.7-inch display iPad is enough for you, than start thinking once again as iMore reports that Apple is in an urge to launch a smaller size, roughly of 7-inch, iPad by October and will being been priced between $200-$250. The publication claims that the 7-inch iPad will be “identical in every way” to the current iPad except that of the display size. The device will reportedly come with only 8 GB of storage. Apple’s current iPod touch starts at $199 and this smaller iPad will undoubtedly carry significantly higher component costs.
I2Mag, an Internet & Design Inspiration Magazine having emphasis on empowering and inspiring people by spreading the waves of knowledge of technology world. I2Mag is an independent news source dedicated to covering start-ups, reviewing internet products, social media, digital culture and technology news.
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When the highly-anticipated The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim releases this Friday, November 11, there will be a patch available for download from Bethesda. This patch will be available for all platforms (PC, Xbox 360, PS3). It is unclear what the patch will actually do or fix, but hopefully those details will emerge sometime before release and won’t contain any serious issues.
In a recent interview, director Todd Howard explained the company’s plans for future Skyrim DLC, saying that there are plans for “substantial” pieces of downloadable content. Howard told Wired.com that “We’re not going to be doing a lot of it.” This is a little misleading, as Howard went on to explain that “Our high-level thinking is that there’ll be not as many [pieces of DLC], but they’ll be bigger and more substantial. The goal overall is not necessarily to put out more content, but to make the game better.” Chances are the plans for Skyrim are a little bigger than something like the Horse Armor Pack from Oblivion.
When asked about the release window for the DLC, Howard said that Bethesda would get to work on the content after the company’s vacation following release. Bethesda also announced back in August that the first two pieces of DLC would be released for the Xbox 360 first, so it might be worth it to spring for the 360 version despite some reported texture loading issues.


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Sony managed to undercut Microsoft when they announced PS4 will launch for $399, $100 less than Xbox One's $499 launch price. Not only is this significantly less than PS3's launch, when adjusted for inflation, it's the cheapest PlayStation home console launch ever.
According to a price analysis by Ars Technica, PlayStation 4 is cheaper than any previous home console from Sony, with PS2 being valued at $405 when adjusted for today's dollars. Microsoft's new console, on the other hand, is the most expensive Xbox ever--but not by much. Xbox 360 would cost $476 today, and that doesn't include a fancy next-gen Kinect camera, either.


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CBSE Class 10 board exam 2019 results are expected to be released in the coming days. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is yet to announce official details of the exact Class 10 CBSE result 2019 date, or the Class 10 CBSE 2019 time. However, considering the early release of the Class 12 results that took place on Thursday, May 2, it is likely that the Board would announce the Class 10 results as early as next week. Students, like always, would be able to use CBSE’s official website — cbseresults.nic.in — to access the CBSE result 2019 online. Additionally, Google and Microsoft are also easing the experience for pupils and their guardians to check the Class 10 results online through other sources as well. Here, we tell you how to perform a CBSE Class 10 result online check, helping you quickly check CBSE result 2019.
How to check CBSE Class 10 results on cbseresults.nic.in
- To check the Class 10 results, visit the official CBSE website by going to cbseresults.nic.in or cbse.nic.in.
- Once the CBSE Class 10 results are out, the CBSE official site will show a link to take you to the Secondary School Examination Results 2019 page.
- You will there be asked to enter your CBSE Class 10 roll number issued by the Board, school number, centre number, and admit card ID number. Once entered, hit the Submit button.
- The CBSE official site will then show you the results. You can also download your CBSE result 2019 for offline use or print them in a hard copy.
If in case the CBSE official website is not accessible on your system, you can use Google to check your Class 10 results online. We explain how:
How to check CBSE Class 10 results on Google
- To check the Class 10 results on Google, search for ‘Class 10 results’ or ‘CBSE Class 10 results’, ‘how to check Class 10 results’, or ‘check CBSE Class 10 results’ on the Google.com homepage.
- Google will show the results tool just above all the search results to let you easily check your Class 10 CBSE result.
- The results tool will ask you to enter your CBSE roll number, centre number, school number, and admit card ID number. You can find these details on your Class 10 admit card.
- Now, you need to press the Check Exam Results button.
- Google will then show your results on the screen.
Notably, the Google results tool is available on both desktop and mobile devices. The search giant partnered with CBSE last year to offer an easy solution to students.
If you have the Microsoft SMS Organizer app on your smartphone, you can check your Class 10 CBSE result while on-the-move as well. Here’s how.
How to check CBSE Class 10 results via Microsoft SMS Organizer app
Microsoft is letting students check their CBSE Class 10 result using its SMS Organizer app.
- To begin with, you need to have the Microsoft SMS Organizer app installed on your Android device. The app is available for free download via Google Play.
- Once the app is installed, it will notify you to register for the CBSE Class 10 results. Enter your details and then you’ll soon be notified of your results directly through an SMS message.
- The SMS Organizer app also lets the students pre-register their details for the Class 10 results and they’ll be notified as soon as the results are announced by CBSE.
Previously, CBSE was expected to declare the Class 10 and Class 12 results in the third week of May. The Board, however, announced the results for the Class 12 students on Thursday. This suggests a sooner than earlier expected release of the Class 10 CBSE result.
Cbseresults.nic.in Updated With 2019 Class 12 Results: How to Check CBSE Result Right Now
To recall, the CBSE Class 10 exams were held between February 21 and March 29 this year.
New Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 renderings leak showing off all angles
One of the most anticipated smartphones from Samsung that fans are looking forward to is the Galaxy Z Fold 3. The foldable flagship smartphone is set to launch on August 11, and ahead of that launch, we have some details that have surfaced via various leaks. Now some additional renderings of the smartphone have leaked, showing almost all angles of … Continue reading
Volocopter 2X completed its first US public crewed test flight
Each year the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) holds a massive air show in Wisconsin called AirVenture. At AirVenture 2021, the Volocopter 2X eVTOL aircraft had a very successful and important milestone flight. At the show, the aircraft had its first-ever public crewed test flight of the fully electric vertical take-off and landing air taxi in the US. Volocopter says the … Continue reading
AirTag battery safety puts Apple in a quandary
Apple’s privacy-respecting item tracker is like a ping-pong of good news, bad news revelations. Apple has made its AirTags so easy to use that there have been concerns about the security of the Find My network. The small discs are small enough to place anywhere but require a separate accessor to hook into objects unless you take the ill-advised route … Continue reading
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The holiday season is finally behind us, with U.S. shoppers spending billions of dollars on holiday gifts this season. As in past years, along with holiday gifting comes holiday returns. According to B-Stock Solutions, shoppers were expected to return up to $95 billion worth of holiday purchases, a projected jump of 15 to 20 percent over last year. One survey found that 77 percent of consumers said they plan to return a portion of their gifts, with nearly 20 percent expecting to return more than half of them.
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The Member for Fairfax and Palmer United Party federal leader, Clive Palmer, said Ted O’Brien needs to stop using the local dairy farming industry as a political platform.
Mr Palmer said Ted O’Brien should check Hansard and see where Liberal stood when it came to voting on supporting dairy farmers.
“I supported Australia’s dairy farmers in parliament with a supportive vote for fair price for milk, unlike all Liberal and Labor politicians,” Mr Palmer said.
“In addition to this support, the Palmer United Party’s vote that removed the carbon tax helped dairy farmers by easing the pressure of additional and unnecessary costs.
“Ted O’Brien should not be using a struggling local industry as a political platform and I would encourage Ted and his family to drink more milk to support the local dairy industry just as I encourage milk to be drank at local schools.”
Mr Palmer said earlier this week he attended an Australian Dairy Industry Council event in Canberra.
“I spoke with the CEOs of the dairy industry groups about how we can provide better support for the industry,” he said.
“The price of milk has been forced lower by major retailers who are using their size and dominant position to destroy the livelihoods of local milk producers who are struggling to earn a living.
“It is destroying local communities like Kenilworth, where people rely on the dairy industry for work; I am committed to working to protect our farming and dairy industries and make sure that Australian produce can remain viable for farmers and retailers.”
Mr Palmer said he would call upon Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and ministers to address the issue to stop major retailers paying less than the cost of production for retailers.


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Ad-blocking software company Adblock Plus claims that its software has already been downloaded over 300 million times across the world, and WARC wrote a story last year showing five percent of all internet users used the technology (in the US, 41 percent of 18-29 year olds claimed to use adblock software). This means that millions of ads served throughout the world on desktops and laptops do not reach their desired targets. Now the German company has announced that it is currently trialling an update of its ad-blocking software that enables Android users to block ads on their smartphones. So what’s the industry doing about it?
Browsing: Ad Block
IAB responds to Ad Block Plus’ extension to mobile


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Sometimes, you'd think that hybrid-electric vehicles were the most important development in the automotive world, if not the entire geopolitical sphere, in the last 15 years. They're not.
More than a decade after they launched into the U.S. market, their market share hovers just south of 3 percent. Globally, it's roughly 1 percent.
And by far the biggest portion of that total volume belongs to the three generations of the Toyota Prius, the world's first hybrid and the one that still represents more than one of every two hybrids on the planet. Its distinctive form has even earned the honor of its very own South Park episode.
But we get testy about the lack of context. Specifically, today's coverage of yet another study--this one by CarGurus.com--that points out that buying the hybrid model doesn't save enough gasoline to cover the purchase premium over the non-hybrid model of that same car.
Especially with U.S. gasoline prices floating around the $2.70 per gallon mark.
The cars ranged from the Honda Civic Hybrid compact sedan to the GMC Yukon Hybrid full-size SUV, including the new and popular 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid. Neither of the two dedicated hybrids sold in the U.S.--the Toyota Prius and the Honda Insight--were included.
The study covered both depreciation and operating costs.
Mercedes-Benz S 400 Hybrid
(Actually, a differing study showed that the 2010 Mercedes-Benz S 400 Hybrid is the sole hybrid that does save money, because it's the least expensive S-Class sedan sold here and it has the best gas mileage to boot. But hey, who's counting?)
Yep. Hybrids don't pay back. But then, HUMMERs aren't bought solely by people who need to ford rocky riverbeds to take little Jason and little Jennifer to soccer practice. And so forth.
The point is that people buy cars for all sorts of reasons, from the purely practical (number of seats, luggage capacity, fuel efficiency) to the not-very-well-understood psychographics of what you think your car says about you to others.
Which is, it turns out, the Number One reason that Prius owners bought their cars: to make a statement that they're green. That data comes from a study done at the University of Minnesota on purchase motivations.
The same motivations are likely to apply to purchase hybrid models of non-hybrid cars and trucks, though we'd be eager to see a study that looked at that question in a systematic way.
So the new study, covered by our colleagues at Wired, once again produces data to support a relatively well-known conclusion: The added cost of hybrid-electric gear--not to mention the premium trim that usual accompanies hybrid options on models also sold as gasoline cars--exceeds an owner's likely lifetime gasoline savings.
That's not why most people buy hybrids.
It is, however, why people like us end up having to write articles like this.


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Traders are traditionally considered to be the 'backbone' of the Bharatiya Janata Party''s 'vote bank'.
The Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi's comment is the first clear statement in favour of big retail and e-commerce from the party that has publicly opposed foreign direct investment (FDI), especially in multi-brand retail.
There is no need to fear global challenges, try to convert the situation into an opportunity. Make the most of this situation. We are a powerful nation and have taken a lead in information technology. This is the age of online marketing, accept modern science and make use of it, Modi said.
Modi surprised small traders with his inaugural speech at the Traders National Convention as they have expressed fears of being swamped by organised retail and had expected Modi to highlight those concerns.
While Modi made no direct mention of FDI in any of his three speeches in Delhi Thursday, he said his party supports the roll-out of a national Goods and Services tax, a major demand from industry for the next Central government.
Instead, he said small traders must learn to build brands and go online, creating virtual malls to take on large and multinational retailers. Customers from even small towns are now going for branded stuff. They are going to malls to buy them. Small traders can build a virtual mall by getting into agreements with brands. You can have a virtual mall in small shops at the click of a button, he said.
Just weeks ago, Rajasthans BJP government became the second state after Delhi to roll back the permission given to foreign direct investment of up to 50 per cent in multi-brand retail. Other BJP ruled states have not permitted such FDI and analysts said Modis views could force a rethink.
Global retailers such as Walmart, Tesco and Carrefour who had shown interest in India have since gone slow on their plans while even single-brand retailers such as Ikea have decided to pause despite getting all clearances.
Modis statements were lapped by big retailers.
This looks like a strategic direction which is being set ahead of the elections and its a very welcome one. These comments and clarity will help everyone in the industry and foreign players to take decisions, Kishore Biyani, CEO of Future Group, told The Indian Express.
Modi used the three different platforms to give some indicators of the economic policies the BJP could follow if elected to power.
In the last 10 years we have lost out...We talk about fiscal deficit but we have governance deficit, deficit of vibrancy in democratic institutions, ease of doing business deficit, security deficit, he said at the India Economic Convention.
We need to restore the faith of common people. We dont have direction, dedication and determination. Bad governance is like diabetes. More than policies we need governance...What we need is a complete overhaul of the departmental system. Laws should be made simple, he said.
Economic decisions, Modi said, should not be taken under the influence of politics. If the purpose for which the government has been constituted isnt served, there is no point in running the government, he said.
Modi said GST introduction was delayed as the Centre had not been able to prepare for it and had not listened sympathetically to the states.
I have met the finance minister and told him if the IT backbone is not created GST cannot come through, Modi said, without specifying why Gujarat has been opposing the Bill despite the Centres compensation offer.


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Hot deals courtesy of The Next Web. Hot deals courtesy of The Next Web.
TLDR: Just win the Nintendo Gaming Bundle Giveaway to take home a new Nintendo Switch, a copy of Animal Crossing New Horizons and more great prizes valued at $1,000.
In a true sign of the times, thousands of Animal Crossing: New Horizons players took to their islands to kick off the start of a virtual Pride festival earlier this month, honoring LGBTQPIA+ STEM communities. Meanwhile, you can now also download an app that will pretty accurately forecast the weather of a player’s virtual island, offering them a leg up on your game goals.
If that last paragraph has you scratching your head in total bewilderment, you are behind the curve.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is gaming’s latest sensation, selling nearly 12 million copies in its first 12 days of release back in March. The phenomenon has also pushed its platform, the Nintendo Switch, to some gaudy sales figures of its own, doubling its March 2020 sales figures over March 2019 totals.
And since we want to make sure you up on all the latest hot trends, we’re looking to give you a copy of the game plus a Nintendo Switch to play it on and other assorted goodies in The Nintendo Gaming Bundle Giveaway. And it costs absolutely nothing to enter.
For newbies to the Animal Crossing franchise, you take up residence on a deserted island — and the rest is up to you. There is no winning or losing or time to worry about in Animal Crossing, just exploration, fun and building your own community of cute little anthropomorphic animal creatures. If you want a game that will chill you right out in minutes, this is the one.
In addition to the game, the winner of the sweepstakes also gets their own Nintendo Switch, a set of Switch-compatible Logitech wireless surround sound headphones, and a $300 gift card to the Nintendo eShop so if you’d like to step off the island and play Mario Kart, Fortnite, FIFA 20, Minecraft and any of dozens of other games, you’ve got plenty of cash to build your Switch library.
The complete prize is worth about $1,000, so it’s definitely worth it to fill ou the short entry form and send it in. There’s even a chance to pick up a second entry for yourself when you talk a friend or family member into entering too. They’ve gotta be at least 21 years old or older, so if they qualify, you just doubled your shot at the bootie.
Oct. 9 is the last day to register to win, so get the entry in now and keep your fingers crossed!
Get the TNW newsletter
Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.


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Advertisers are putting climate crisis content on their blocklists. Publishers fear it's 'defunding' their news coverage.
Some brands are looking to avoid appearing in articles containing broad terms like "carbon footprint" or "greenhouse gas," publisher sources said.
Ozy draws advertiser scrutiny
In this week's Insider Advertising we're covering the latest Ozy fallout, climate-change keyword blocking, and the sports-betting NFL ad spree.
Twitter is the latest platform to let users block ads
At a broad level, “the issue of rising mobile ad blocking is something advertisers should be concerned about.”
Industry-wide ad blocking could finally acknowledge that online advertising has problems
The discussions to introduce industry-wide ad blocking only present a small benefit for users and give more control to tech companies.
Princeton University is developing an undetectable ad blocker
It's currently in the proof-of-concept stage and will look at websites to find ads rather than identify the code which calls an ad.
Ad blocking is leading to 'the slow death of niches' on the web
Ad blockers hurt smaller publishers by giving them an initial traffic spike which then falls away.
Adblock Plus has announced the 'Acceptable Ads Committee' who will decide which ads it won't block
The committee comprises members across the advertising, publishing, research, and tech community.
Mobile ad blocking firm Shine is rebranding to 'Rainbow' and will stop selling ad blocking to carriers
Instead, the Israel-based company is going to offer a free ad blocker to consumers that only blocks ads that don't meet industry standards.
Ad blocker usage is up 30% — and a popular method publishers use to thwart it isn't working
A new report from PageFair found global ad blocker usage grew 30% to 615 million devices in 2016.
Here's one sign that ad blocking's meteoric growth could start to slow down
Ad blocker usage in Germany fell for the third straight quarter in Germany.
Google and 16 other companies have formed a coalition that wants to police ads on the web
The Coalition For Better Ads wants to create global standards for web advertising.
Adblock Plus is making a surprising leap into ad tech
Adblock Plus is launching an SSP (supply-side platform).


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UAE start-ups account for 88% of regional deal value, says Economy Ministry initiative
According to Aim start-up, local services, e-commerce and financial services account for nearly half of the deal count last year
Start-ups in the UAE secured $31.36 million (Dh115.2m) in investment last year, accounting for 88 per cent of the entire deal value in the region.
According to an initiative set up by the Ministry of Economy, local services, e-commerce and financial services, account for nearly half of the deal count (44 per cent), with logistics, software, media, education and transportation comprising the remaining, according to data from Aim Start-up.
Deal value refers to the amount paid by an acquirer for an equity stake in a targeted asset, plus the value of the net debt in that entity.
“The start-up ecosystem is fast changing. Just a few years ago, start-ups seemed like the purview of a niche circle, but fast forward today, and start-ups are hitting the mainstream business culture, emerging at an unprecedented rate,” said Dawood Al Shezawi, chairman of the organising committee of Aim Start-up, an Economy Ministry initiative.
Venture capital activity in the Mena region grew 31 per cent in 2018 from 2017, with 366 investments amounting to $893m in funding, start-up community platform Magnitt found in its January Mena Venture Investment Report.
This year’s Annual Investment Meeting in Dubai, set to run from April 8 until 10, will feature 500 start-ups, double the number from last year.
The event received approximately 600 applications last year, of which 250 exhibited and 50 entered the pitch competition. This year, of the thousands of applicants, 500 will exhibit and 120 will be able to pitch their ideas to investors and
Of the 500 start-ups competing, Aim Start-up wants 20 per cent to come from the UAE. Five winners will receive $10,000 (Dh36,731) each in seed money to support their project.
Applications for the event are still open.
Sectors such as FinTech, cyber security and Blockchain have had “unprecedented growth” in the UAE start-up scene, said the organisers.
“Disruptive technologies such as robotics, virtual reality and Internet of Things are already transforming the start-up landscape, and we are confident that coming years will witness greater results, considering the impactful growth tech start-ups have made,” said
Mr Al Shezawi.
Now in its ninth year, Aim Start-up is the largest global gathering of corporate leaders, policymakers, regional and international investors, entrepreneurs, academics and experts to discuss information and strategies on attracting foreign direct investment.
Last year, the event attracted more than 20,000 participants from more than 140 countries.
Updated: March 17, 2019 10:36 AM


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Black Friday Scams and how to avoid them
It’s that time of the year again where we all prepare to score some discount deals during the world’s biggest shopping event – Black Friday! While businesses have already started flashing their deals, cybercriminals are also preparing to cash in! The sad reality is that in today’s digital world, no one is immune from data theft – not even your favourite retailer. Consumers have as much of a responsibility to practice cybersecurity as their retailors. Every day there is a new exploit or vulnerability, and the security landscape is changing all the time. Phishing attacks increase by as much as 336% around Black Friday, which means customers are more at risk to email, text and social media scams than ever before.
Threats to look out for include:
- Fly-by-night online stores: many consumers fall victim to this because there are many fake online stores that pop up and disappear with consumers’ money. Shop at stores you are familiar with and those that have an established reputation.
- Double check the URL: these days cybercriminals even fake retailer websites and make them look almost the same. Fake website addresses are usually off by a character or two, so make sure that you are on the write website and that the spelling is correct.
- Deals too good to be true: though you are likely to get the best deals during this time, tread carefully, especially around links and emailed gift cards that appear to be too good to be true.
- Phishing: this is when cyber criminals gain access to your credentials. During Black Friday and even the festive season, you may start to get bombarded with emails asking you to click through links or open attachments of amazing deals. If this is not from your regular newsletter, or from a company with whom you have shared your, rather stay safe than sorry, and don’t share your personal information in return for any vouchers, prizes, or even gift cards.
WASPA’s Managing Executive, shares some tips and tricks to stay safe during Black Friday.
Go to the WASPA Press Release Archive.


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Twilight Princess is noted to be the longest and most detailed Zelda adventure to date, and Nintendo sure mean business with the latest batch of screenshots. Game Reactor have a bunch of high quality images from the GameCube version, so read on for some astounding detail...
In the latest selections of screens, Link explores an expansive world, complete with vast amounds of fresh green grass, big, bold trees along with the tiniest particles for a very realistic experience.
Some of these images were also featured in a recent edition of American gaming magazine, EGM. Zelda hits stores later this year, rumoured to be October/November 2006.
Additional screens can be found in the game's screen album below.
Stay tuned for further updates.


text:
Despite gloomy data out of China weighing on the outlook for U.S. earnings, U.S. equities are looking attractive for U.S. investors, Sam Peters, CIO and portfolio manager at global investment management firm Leg Mason Capital Management, told CNBC on Thursday.
“There’s still a lot of innovation going on in technology in the U.S.,” he said, and referred to the current trend in cloud computing – which allows users to access information stored in a central location from anywhere using devices such as a smart phones, tablets or personal computers.
The health care sector is valuable at the moment as well, as emerging market consumption is growing, and as “U.S. health care is exposed to those areas, this sector will be growing,” Peters said.
The CIO also said that financials is the fastest growing sector in the market. “Despite the terrible outlook that is discounted in these names, many of them below book, the earnings recovery that has been going on as credits have been improving in the US, is very powerful,” he said.
“Consistently financials have been one of the faster growing sectors in the markets in the last two years,” he noted, highlighting that a third of S&P 500 earnings growth is seen coming from financials.
Peters also said that despite the fact that retail and institutional investors aren’t buying U.S. equities, cash rich corporations are buying equities at the moment, a movement Citi bank has coined as "de-equitizing."


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The 5 Worst Data Breaches of All Time
23 Oct 2017
Data breaches have become the new normal. We’ve all heard about Equifax, but what about Sonic? Whole Foods? Pizza Hut? In a world where not even the fast food industry is immune, it’s hard to keep track of the victims, let alone predict who might be next.
But hey, it could always be worse, right? In light of these recent high-profile cases, let’s turn back the clock and remember some of the most devastating data breaches of all time.
The trouble started just before Thanksgiving, in the middle of the holiday fraud rush. Hackers identified a third-party HVAC vendor that worked with Target. By breaching the vendor’s systems, the hackers were able to access Target’s point-of-sale card readers. When the seasonal fraud rush died down and the candy cane dust settled, Target discovered that the hackers had collected personal information belonging to around 40 million customers. That estimate later rose to 110 million.
Not long after Target discovered the breach, the company’s CIO and CEO resigned, facing a $162 million bill for the damage. But Target learned from its mistakes and immediately implemented top-of-the-line security measures, right? Not so fast. The CEO of Strategic Cyber Ventures says that Target’s post-data breach security improvements have not done much to resolve its key vulnerabilities, and “represent yesterday’s security paradigm.”
4) Heartland Payment Systems
When the Heartland data breach happened, the payment processing provider was processing about 100 million transactions a month for 175,000 merchants. Though the breach occurred in 2008, it wasn’t discovered until a year later, when analysts from Visa and MasterCard noticed suspicious transactions coming from accounts Heartland had processed. Ultimately, hackers stole data from about 134 million credit cards.
The hackers used a technique called SQL injection, one of the oldest and most prevalent web application vulnerabilities. SQL injection occurs when a site prompts the hacker for input, like their username or user ID, and the hacker instead inputs a malicious SQL statement. The Heartland hackers’ nefarious SQL statements allowed them to access credit card information stored in Heartland’s databases. Researchers had warned companies like Heartland about SQL vulnerabilities for years, but reports say Heartland brushed off the concerns.
Fraud analysts who were monitoring site activity on eBay in May 2014 would have seen what appeared to be three corporate employees logging on and off the site. But this activity wasn’t as innocent as it seemed. Unbeknownst to anyone, hackers had stolen these employees’ login credentials. For 229 days, the fraudsters had complete insider access to eBay.
By the time eBay officials realized what happened, the hackers had stolen data from 145 million users: nearly everyone who used the site. This data included names, addresses, dates of birth, and encrypted passwords. eBay later reported that the data breach did little to impact their bottom line, though the site did suffer a decline in user activity.
2) Adult Friend Finder
The FriendFinder Network, which is exactly what it sounds like, had a delicate responsibility. Those who used websites affiliated with the network – including Adult Friend Finder, Penthouse.com, and iCams.com – trusted these sites to keep their information secure from fraudsters and friends alike. But in October 2016, disaster struck. Hackers exploited a Local File Inclusion vulnerability to steal 20 years of data.
As the hackers discovered, sites on the FriendFinder network were severely misconfigured. A loophole allowed users to upload files to the server, regardless of the user’s admin privileges. By uploading malicious files, the hackers stole data from 412.2 million accounts. Though users’ passwords were encrypted, the algorithm was so weak that hackers cracked 99% of them in under a month.
We’ve only recently begun to understand the magnitude of the Yahoo breach. In September 2016, Yahoo announced that it had suffered a data breach at the hands of a “state-sponsored actor” two years prior. The company revealed that hackers had stolen names, email addresses, dates of birth, and phone numbers of 500 million users, but that their passwords were strongly encrypted.
In December, a more shocking story emerged. Yahoo disclosed that in 2013, yet another breach occurred – a more damaging breach that compromised a billion accounts. Unlike the other breach, this data breach had resulted in the theft of passwords and security questions.
But just this month, we experienced a third plot twist. Yahoo revised its estimate for the 2013 data breach, revealing that 3 billion accounts had been compromised: every user who’d ever had a Yahoo account. Researchers, fraud analysts, and ordinary users are still scrambling to make sense of the hack. Despite regulatory and legal liabilities from this unparalleled data breach, Yahoo was able to sell itself to Verizon. Shortly after the sale, part of the company changed its name – and who can blame them?
The bottom line: data breaches happen. Want to learn how you can protect your users from the downstream effect of breaches – ATO? Download our free ebook!


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Following some unexpected backlash against Emma Watson across social media this week, an official rep for the actress has spoken out to clear up exactly what the deal is with her 2013 Lancome adverts.
Fans were pretty shocked to learn that Emma, a loud and proud feminist, had previously fronted a beauty campaign to promote skin lightening products, but now her team have explained that it wasn't something she necessarily signed up for in the first place.
In case you missed all the drama yesterday, Emma's Lancome advert from three years ago resurfaced online, featuring her promoting their Blanc Expert Malanolyser.
The product is formulated to help restrict the production of melanin – the pigment that gives your skin colour – and although it can be used to combat dark spots and acne scars, some critics reckoned that it was also encouraging skin bleaching for Asian women.
But reps for Emma have insisted that she had "limited control" of how her image was used in the campaign once she'd shot the footage, and added that she's now stopped getting involved with beauty advertising altogether.
"Many artists often have limited control of how their image is used once an endorsement contract is signed," they told The Independent.
"I cannot comment on my client's previous contractual arrangements with Lancome. However my client no longer participates in advertising beauty products, which do not always reflect the diverse beauty of all women," they added.
What do you think about the comments from Team Emma on all of this? Let us know with a tweet to @Sugarscape.
NOW READ THIS LOT TOO


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GM enters new European markets with Luxury $93K Lyriq e-SUV
Embarking on a bold foray into the fast-expanding electric vehicle (EV) market of Europe, American automobile giant General Motors (GM) is set to captivate the Old Continent with its latest creation – the all-electric Cadillac Lyriq luxury crossover SUV.
Amid various production-related challenges, GM has strategically tested European waters with its Cadillac EVs since late last year. With the official launch of the Cadillac Lyriq SUV in France, the company has confirmed its entry into new markets. Priced in premium segment at $93,000, this American-made EV boasts zero emissions, representing a pinnacle of sustainable luxury.
Breaking away from the conventional dealership model, the American automaker is allowing European customers to customize and order the Lyriq e-SUV directly online, with plans for a dedicated showroom in Paris. The availability of the Lyriq for online orders from March 23rd adds a layer of convenience for tech-savvy consumers. With an impressive estimated driving range of 530 km (roughly 329 miles) powered by its advanced Ultium battery, this sophisticated battery-powered vehicle sets a new standard for sustainable mobility.
In spite of a formidable price tag and amidst a landscape clamoring for affordable EV options, GM remains unwavering in its belief in the luxury EV segment. Jaclyn McQuaid, the brand’s European head, emphasizes the e-SUV's prominence in the zero-emission vehicle market, especially in the thriving luxury segment. The Lyriq's entry into Switzerland, priced at 82,000 Swiss francs ($93,100), signifies the brand's commitment to making a mark in European markets.
When asked for a comment, McQuaid said, “When you look at the battery electric vehicle market in France, it is the luxury market that grew to the greatest extent. The luxury market is where the focus is right now.”
Last year, Tesla’s Model Y electric crossover SUV officially earned the crown as Europe’s best-selling car overall, making it the first EV ever to do so.
GM’s strategic entry into the European luxury electric car market with the Cadillac Lyriq unquestionably signals a transformative moment. Beyond a mere EV launch, it symbolizes the concurrence of American innovation, sustainable luxury transportation, and a bold step towards redefining European mobility. The Lyriq isn’t just an e-SUV; it's an embodiment of the world-renowned automaker’s commitment to shaping the future of automotive excellence on a global scale. On the way to electrifying mobility, the Cadillac Lyriq stands poised to leave an indelible mark on European roads, steering the Old Continent towards a sustainable and luxurious automotive future.


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CyanogenMod To Release Two-Step Easy Installer, Plots World Domination
September 18, 2013 6:04 PM
comment(s) - last by
Newly formed company must tread lightly lest it anger Google
CyanogenMod (aka "CM") -- originally the creation of one man, Steve "Cyanogen" Kondik -- is far and away
the most widely used replacement firmware
on the market for the world's most commonly used operating system, Google Inc.'s (
) Android. Today, Mr. Kondik's company -- which bears his handle -- is thriving, with 17 developers split between offices in Seattle and Palo Alto.
I. Cyanogen Becomes a Company
This week announced the completion of a round of venture capital funding.
that they raised $7M USD -- an impressive showing for such a small firm. Most of the funding came from
These are some marquee name backers. Benchmark is a prominent Menlo Park, Calif. VC, who has funded many industry greats including Facebook Inc.'s (
) Instagram, eBay, Inc. (
), the now defunct Palm Computing, and Red Hat Inc. (
). Redpoint -- also in Menlo Park -- helped fund Juniper Networks, Inc. (
), Netflix, Inc. (
), and Right Media, an advertiser that was acquired by Yahoo! Inc. (
First introduced in May 2009 for T-Mobile USA's G1 smartphone (the first major Android phone) -- Cyanogen grew via support for the
community. Today, official numbers show over 8 million users, but that's only the minority who opt to send feedback data to Cyanogen. Cyanogen CEO Kirk McMaster estimates the true user base is around 16 to 24 million users, according to an interview he gave to
Cyanogen's Jelly Bean (10.0) release [Image Source: Cyanogen Inc.]
He comments, "There’s always been lot of talk around who’s going to be the third dominant mobile computing platform. Windows Phone would probably be number three now. If you look at what our actual user base is, we might be equal to or greater than that."
The founder of the company, Steve Kondik, says that Cyanogen's wild growth has been fueled by carrier profiteering. Carriers are
slow to upgrade users' phones
, hoping to force users into early upgrades. But replacing your Android's firmware with Cyanogen -- which receives regular updates and
supports nearly all North American Android smartphones
-- cast a monkey wrench in those dastardly plans.
Mr. Kondik blogs:
Google completely decimated an entire sector of industry by releasing Android as open source, and CM became something of an underground revolution fighting against the players in that industry still hanging on to the old-hat idea of trying to sell you a disposable new telephone every couple of years while charging a premium for trivial things. We know these aren’t just phones anymore, they are powerful machines with immense capability, and we could make them work however we wanted.
II. A Simple Installer -- Free at Last
The CM developer ring didn't transform into a bonafide company until December 2012. Now, with funding backing it, Mr. Kondik promises a huge leap forward, which will make CM a true solution for all users, not just enthusiast hackers. He writes:
The biggest obstacle we wanted to get out of the way is the hideous installation process. Today there are more open and unlockable devices than ever, but they all have their quirks and wildly different installation procedures. We've done our best to document the process for every device we support on our wiki, but it is still a daunting process for mere mortals. This is not sufficient—installation needs to be easy and safe. This is a great deal of complexity to manage when you are talking about almost a hundred different devices, but we decided to tackle it.
Cyanogen's team. [Image Source: Cyanogen Inc.]
Cyanogen Inc. will be releasing a Play Store app that makes unlocking most common Android devices a trivial click through an installer process -- rather than the current installation guides which can involve 23 or more meticulous steps.
Cyanogen's upcoming two-step installer solution [Image Source: Cyanogen Inc.]
As to how the firm is going to make money, Mr. McMaster tells
, "If you’re the default OS on a device and you have 50 million users, there are a lot of ways to make money. It’s not just about building a user base. It’s about building great services you can’t get anywhere else."
One possibility is that Cyanogen Inc. could cut a deal to set the internal search end to the highest bidder by default. Such deals net Mozilla and Opera Software ASA (
) tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars.
The real question is whether Google -- which has always toed the line between full-on rebel coders like CM and the carriers it's partnered with -- will continue to tolerate CM, which it has never officially commented on. As
But what if some of those services get blocked? Core Google apps including Gmail, Chrome, and Maps aren’t open-sourced parts of Android — they’re part of Google Play Services. Using Google Play Services
requires that a device be certified by Google
. Firmware modifications like Cyanogen bring devices into a gray area where the original phone may have been certified, but the modified version could fall outside Google’s guidelines.
[Image Source: Hip Genius]
Thus Cyanogen Inc. might care to "tread lightly" as Walter White would say, lest Goole pull a page from Apple, Inc.'s (
) playbook and try to stomp it out.
This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled
RE: CM10 is nothing special
9/19/2013 8:43:03 PM
1. hold power button
2. choose Screenshot (enabled via Settings)
VolDown+Power doesn't work on non-Nexus 4 devices.
"And boy have we patented it!" -- Steve Jobs, Macworld 2007
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A tour of Delta Galil Industries in the northern town of Carmiel with its CEO, Isaac Dabah, shows how meaningless national borders are when it comes to making money. The American Jewish businessman, whose parents fled to Jerusalem from Syria in 1948, was in Israel on one of his very regular visits here. In fact Dabah was born in Jerusalem and lived in Israel until age 10.
- Israeli industrialist Dov Lautman dies at 77
- Noam Lautman follows family tradition in becoming Delta Galil chairman
- Don't bury the textile industry just yet
- Rude awakening: The rise and fall of American Apparel’s Dov Charney
- Business in Brief(s): Delta undergarments firm posts 11% profit rise
He was joined on the tour of the Delta textile factory by his Argentine-born wife, who is also of Syrian background. As he made his way around the facility, he shook hands and chatted with its diverse workforce of Druze, Christian and Bedouin Arabs as well as the small number of Jews on the factory floor. Jews, however, are predominant in the upper levels of management.
But the heterogeneous nature of the Carmiel plant’s staff is just the tip of the iceberg. The designs for men’s, women’s and children’s apparel developed here are manufactured in Egypt, Turkey, China, and Bangladesh and then sold as far afield as the United States, Germany, France, Britain — and, of course, Israel.
Dabah accumulated almost all of his Delta stock between 2005 and 2008 for a total of about $100 million. Since 2007, the company’s stock price has soared 300% turning him (on paper at least) into a billionaire in shekel terms. As of Sunday, when Delta shares closed up 1.7% at 102.80 shekels ($29.84) in Tel Aviv Stock Exchange trading, his 55% stake was worth about 1.4 billion shekels. On top of that, Dabah has collected about $36 million in dividends and as CEO draws a salary that last year alone amounted to nearly 7 million shekels.
Dabah says this is just the beginning for the Delta, whose product lines spans from women’s underwear and bras to socks, baby clothing, sleepwear and knitted fabrics. By Israeli standards, Delta is a medium-sized company and by American ones is still quite small, but Dabah aspires to join the global textile and garment industry’s top 10 players. That’s a tall order: Delta’s sales this year are expected to surpass the billion-dollar mark for the first time, but that’s less than one-tenth of the $11 billion that Vanity Fair, the No. 1 company in the industry, sells every year, he notes.
“In Delta’s life cycle, we’re at the end of the first stage of recovery and stabilization,” Dabah says. “We haven’t yet reached 10% profit margins, but we’ll get there.” What’s in store in the second stage? “Making a major acquisition of a company with annual sales of $1.5 billion to $2 billion,” he answers, hinting that nothing is imminent. It’s a sellers’ market and not an opportune time to be looking for acquisitions.
After racking up accumulated losses of $70 million between 2005 and 2008, Delta has reported 18 consecutive quarters of sales growth and is turning a profit of about $50 million a year. Understanding how that turnaround came about requires a little background.
Dov Lautman, a young Israeli engineering graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, founded Delta in 1975 in Carmiel and turned his company into the standard bearer of the Israeli textile sector, with factories around the world. It was hit hard, however, in the 1990s, when the global textile market was flooded with inexpensive garments from China. Delta shuttered factories in Canada, Honduras, the United States, Britain, Ireland and Israel, and transferred a substantial portion of its manufacturing to Jordan. But that was not enough.
“Outside of Israel, it was easy for us to close the factories, but in Israel, it was difficult for Dov to close them. He would always say ‘first let’s shut down in other places.’ Every [Israeli] whom he would lay off would come to the company’s offices at Textile House in Tel Aviv in tears. They were the people who started to work with him back in 1975, and as a result, the streamlining process was carried out too slowly,” recalls Yossi Hajaj, Delta’s chief financial officer. “When Isaac arrived in 2007, he sped it up. He told me: ‘Give out expanded severance pay, whatever it will cost, just as long as we finish with this.’”
The industry crisis forced textile companies in the United States and Europe to change their business models. In Israel, the industry laid off tens of thousands of workers; the only companies that survived were the ones that evolved to more sophisticated products and/or branding. Among them, Delta made the switch most successfully.
It’s hard to explain the turnaround there without a nod to Dabah, who gradually took over the controls at Delta as he acquired a controlling stake while at the same time working in concert with Lautman. A testament to the smooth transition he orchestrated is the fact that a large portion of senior management has stayed through the years. Lautman, who was a major figure on the Israeli industrial scene even after his departure from Delta, died last year after a long battle with ALS, Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Dabah brought with him the ability to set targets for Delta and see to it that they are carried out. For instance, the company had not been known for meeting supply deadlines, a problem in an industry marked by rapidly changing fashions. Dabah began to demand managers be assessed on their ability to deliver orders on time rather than by how many products they had sold. In 2007, only 75% of orders were filled on time, but by 2009, the rate had jumped to 95%.
The name behind Nike
Delta also changed its branding focus. When Dabah arrived only 20% of its products were being sold under international brands; today fully 50% of its undergarments are sold under such leading names as Lacoste, Nike and Tommy Hilfiger. In the United States, about half of its sales are of non-brand merchandise through major retailers such as Walmart. The only country where Delta has its own retail stores under its own brand name is Israel. The old plant in Carmiel is undergoing renovations to turn it into a center of operations for the new Delta, where the company can more fittingly receive representatives from the global brands that it works with.
Although most of the efficiency measures instituted at Delta were carried out five years ago, sales growth has come principally from a series of acquisitions under Dabah, including the Israeli company Lodzia Rotex, as well as the U.S. companies Little Miss Matched and Karen Neuburger, acquired in 2012 and 2011, respectively. In 2012, Delta also acquired the German maker of undergarments Schiesser for $85 million, its biggest acquisition to date. “Now we’ve secured the franchise to produce all of Lacoste’s undergarments all over the world, and Schiesser will be the one to launch Lacoste in Germany,” Dabah says. From there, Delta plans to expand to all of Europe, he says.
Because Schliesser is a German company with its own business culture, Delta did not push for rapid changes immediately after the acquisition, Dabah concedes. “We didn’t work at the pace of change that we do in countries such as the United States,” he says, but Delta did demand that Schliesser boost its profit margin from 5.8% when it was acquired to 10%. Last year they got to 9%, Dabah adds.
Dabah likes to tell the story about how his mother and sister were helped to flee Syria by a local sheikh, who gave them Muslim-style clothes to wear and escorted them through checkpoints. “My mother says that we Sephardim know how to survive with Arabs,” he says. He expresses support for a Palestinian state, but expresses bearishness about an imminent agreement.
Advice to Saeb Erekat
“Yossi Vardi [the high-tech entrepreneur] invited me to [the World Economic Forum at] Davos this year to meet with a group of Palestinian businessmen. When I left I told my wife that there doesn’t seem a chance,” Dabah says. “Saeb Erekat [chief Palestinian negotiator] was there and they asked him ‘Why didn’t you make peace with Olmert or Barak? They offered you what you wanted.’ Erekat said something like ‘We wanted more than the 95.6% offered.’ I said to him, ‘All of us here are businessmen. If someone gives us 80% of what we want, we do business. Here they gave you almost 100%. No one gets 100% of what they want.’”
Dabah’s father was a tax clerk in Jerusalem until 1967, when he moved with his family to New York. There, the elder Dabah worked in bookkeeping and later opened a fabric importing business, an enterprise that Isaac Dabah joined in when he was in his 20s.
Isaac Dabah made his first major business move in the early 1990s, when he bought the Gloria Vanderbilt jeans brand, then on the verge of bankruptcy. He revitalized the company and sold it a decade later for $100 million. He invested some of that money in Israel, initially in the Habas real estate group and in Polgat, the clothing manufacturer, and later in Delta. Habas ultimately went bankrupt, but Dabah got out before the global economic crisis in 2008. He started out buying small quantities of Delta stock during a period in which the company was seen as a lame duck in a crisis-ridden industry.
In 2005, after establishing a relationship with Lautman, he bought a 23% stake, playing second fiddle as a shareholder to Lautman’s 25% interest. By 2007, however, Lautman was seeking a buyer for his interest in the company, due to his illness, and approached Dabah, who bought another 13.3% and took control. Lautman’s son Noam still owns 10% of the company and serves as chairman of the board.
When asked about the nearly 7 million shekels a year that the company pays him in compensation, along with the suggestion that his compensation is high for a company of the size of Delta, particularly when he controls it, Dabbah responds: “If I were the chairman, you would be right, but I work as CEO and deal with Delta 80 to 100 hours a week. If there were a salaried CEO, they would pay him the same salary and maybe more.”
Hajaj, Delta’s CFO, adds that most of Dabah’s salary is from performance-based bonuses, with a very large component of long-term targets. “We should only be so fortunate as to pay him such a salary.”


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If you've been following the drone market in 2016, you know that the commercial market has really come into its own. With the FAA making it easier for drone pilots to become legal with the Part 107, businesses have sprung up all over the country.
At the same time, companies like 3DR have almost completely abandoned the consumer market going after the commercial market instead. Even veteran drone companies like YUNEEC have had seen fewer sales in the consumer market with drones like the Typhoon H and YUNEEC Breeze. The only company that seems to have not been affected is DJI who hold a majority of the market share. Even with thousands of pre orders for their DJI Mavic Pro, many of these are from prosumers who are looking to use the Mavic for commercial purposes, or as a backup to their already professional rigs.
The need for more professional photography and video is also shown by the new release of the Phantom 4 Pro and the Inspire 2 by DJI. The Phantom 4 Pro has a new 1" sensor that greatly improves the cameras capability. It also can now take 20mp still images and take 4k video at 60fps. These advancements show that DJI is expecting drone pilots to use their products for more professional applications.
We can expect this trend to continue where consumer drones get small, foldable and portable, and commercial drones offer more professional cameras and equipment. CasePro continues to develop cases for these new drone including the Phantom 4 Pro and DJI Mavic. As the drone space continues to move forward quickly, Casepro is responding by offering new cases for the latest and greatest drones on the market. Click here to check out our great line of drone cases.
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Netcom On-Line Communications in February will switch to a new price structure that takes into account a growing trend in Internet access: ISP subscribers can either pay for first-class treatment, or they can travel coach and hope for the best.
"There's going to be a market for Yugos and Chevies, and there's going to be a market for Caddies," said Netcom spokesman John Sommerfield. Put another way, he described the difference between the company's current US$19.95 flat rate and the pending higher fees as being like having to stand in line at the post office or paying for FedEx to come straight to your door.
"1997 is going to be the year of finding ways to be profitable on the Internet," Sommerfield said. "The new prices make economic sense. It's the way the market is moving."
Netcom is keeping a lid on its new pricing plan, but reports indicate that subscription fees could jump to $29.95 and higher for a range of more personalized services. These will include special customer service lines for those willing to pay to avoid interminable waits on hold.
Existing flat-rate subscribers will be "grandfathered in," Sommerfield said, adding that they will not be required to upgrade their subscriptions "for the foreseeable future."
He pointed out that some 75 percent of Netcom's approximately 600,000 subscribers are small- and medium-size business owners. "These people are continually telling us that they want to use the Internet to be more productive," Sommerfield said. Translation: They're willing to cough up more cash for faster access and more reliable service.
Industry rivals like AT&T Worldnet, America Online and Prodigy, which each offer flat-rate Net access, will be watching closely to see if Netcom has found a way to make money without alienating consumers. In the quarter that ended 30 September, AOL posted a $354 million loss in net income, although a change in accounting procedures was blamed for the magnitude of the hit. AOL may start charging extra for exclusive features like games.
Steve Higgins, an associate analyst at the brokerage Bear Stearns, said Netcom is probably right in believing that many subscribers will pay more for better service. "The big question," he added, "is how much more."
In the future, Higgins predicted, new arrivals to the Net will migrate toward user-friendly services like AOL, while those with established needs will seek out the likes of Netcom. "There's a lot of price sensitivity on the Internet," he said. "There hasn't yet been anything compelling enough to justify paying outrageous prices."
Decent service may prove to be the breakthrough.


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It’s time to get real
In 2005, as reported here, an executive from the Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA or Big Pharma), agreed to commission, to the tune of $300,000, the writing of a fictional novel in which Muslim terrorists poison prescription drugs in Canada to kill Americans who – seeking affordable medication – buy drugs from Canada. The deal with the publisher didn’t work out. As the authors tell it, PhRMA offered money to shut them up but they said no. They instead wrote a book about a pharmaceutical company who poisoned Canadian drugs and made it look like Muslim terrorists did it. Nope, I couldn’t make this up. That book – The Karasik Conspiracy – is available on Amazon.
Fake news is in the news a lot lately! Like fake news, efforts to dissuade Americans from obtaining safe lower cost medication through personal drug importation can have dangerous consequences: people scared away from safe medication they can afford. There are – in fact – very safe international online pharmacies and dangerous rogue pharmacy sites. Stick to the former avoid the latter. There are tens of millions of Americans not taking medications because of cost — so it’s time to get real. (more…)
Tagged with: AEI, fake news, medscape, Roger Bate, webmd, who
As we close out 2016, I’m not surprised to be reporting and commenting on new survey data by the Kaiser Family Foundation showing that 19 million Americans have purchased and imported lower cost medication from Canada and other countries. I suspect the number is higher and I’m sure it’s not high enough, as I’ll discuss at the conclusion of this post.
First, as reported in Kaiser Health News: “As drug prices have spiraled upward in the past decade, tens of millions of generally law-abiding Americans have committed an illegal act in response: They have bought prescriptions outside the U.S. and imported them.” The Kaiser story also reports that many such purchases are made online and while the FDA warns that many online pharmacies are not safe, “…many medicines purchased from another country are the same as the ones patients buy in the U.S.” That’s all true. The key to safety when buying medications internationally is only purchasing from properly verified websites, ones approved by PharmacyChecker.
Just to recap why importation is a lifeline, let’s look at some highlights from recent data. (more…)
Tagged with: AARP, Kaiser Family Foundation, price watch
The price of the life-saving injection epinephrine, which is prescribed for people with serious allergies, is out of control, surging by 480% since 2009, CBS News reports. But American parents are actually choosing to forgo buying it because of the cost. Enough! For EpiPen Jr, the brand usually prescribed to kids, the lowest price U.S. option found on GoodRx is $614 for a package of two. The lowest price for two injections at a PharmacyChecker.com-approved online pharmacy is just over $200. That means a potential $400 – 66% – savings. Much more than the numbers: for some parents this is the difference between buying or not buying a medication that can save their kid’s life.
By Intropin (Own work), Creative Commons via Wikimedia Commons [(CC BY 3.0)]
I’m a parent and this makes me sick and angry. But what will doubly disgust me today is if I read some Pharma-funded bull about unsafe medication in other countries that might scare a parent away from lower cost Epinephrine. This is life and death for kids. Only the truth is acceptable. The EpiPen Jr is marketed by generic drug giant Mylan in the U.S. But lower cost options internationally are either manufactured or licensed by Pfizer, the drug’s innovator, which should take the wind out of the sails of bogus arguments about “foreign drugs.”
Tagged with: Big Pharma, EpiPen, international online pharmacies
We received the following question about Cialis and generic tadalafil.
Question. I am about to begin a one-year treatment of Cialis to help recover from prostate surgery. My question is where can I find information that will give me confidence to use the generic tadalafil. This could result in a huge savings over the life of the treatment.
Thank you for your consideration.
PharmacyChecker Experts Answer…
You can get information right here! (more…)
Tagged with: cialis, tadalafil
Independent and unbiased health information
Consumer advocate Diane Archer is the founder of JustCare (www.justcareusa.org), a new online resource that makes health advice fun and easy to understand for boomers, older adults and care providers. We’re excited to announce that Diane interviewed our Vice President for Pharmacy Verifications and Information, Kelly Ann Barnes, JD, Rph, about online pharmacy safety and savings. The interview clearly shows why online pharmacies can save you money –– and how PharmacyChecker.com’s verification efforts give consumers information they need to find the safest international online pharmacies.
In Justcareusa.org’s most recent newsletter, Diane writes: “Can online pharmacies offer safe drugs at huge savings? You bet!” As Chair of the Consumer Reports Board of Directors and founder of the Medicare Rights Center, Diane is a nationally recognized consumer advocate and we’re honored and pleased to have her support for the work we do. It speaks volumes about the integrity that she brings to Justcareusa.org in making it a truly objective and independent source of health information for older Americans and the people who care for them.
Tagged with: Consumer Reports, diane archer, justcare, Kelly Ann Barnes
Depends where you buy it online…
This question was posed in the New York Times Ask Well blog this week. We were pleased that PharmacyChecker.com was recommended as an information source for finding credentialed international online pharmacies that sell Pfizer’s brand name Viagra. On the other hand, we were frustrated that the Times answered this question wrongly by writing “In short, no.” Fact: Lawfully manufactured and distributed generic Viagra – sildenafil citrate – is available in Canada and at Canadian pharmacies. Just go to Health Canada’s drug database and you’ll find it – right here [Type in Sildenafil and hit search]. And it has been sold as a generic in Indian pharmacies, lawfully, for a very long time.
So the answer to the blog post’s question is – in fact – yes.
Prices? The price of a Pfizer branded Viagra 100mg pill in many U.S. pharmacies is $50, compared to $7-10 from many safe international online pharmacies. The generic pill sells for as little as a buck. (more…)
Tagged with: ask well, catizone, generic viagra, NABP, sildenafil citrate, Viagra


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As the countdown begins to the formal inauguration of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AFCFTA) agreement on July 7 and 8, the Chief Executive Officer, Financial Derivatives Company (FDC) Limited, Mr. Bismarck Rewane, has said that the treaty could undermine implementation of the Economic Community of West African States’ (ECOWAS) Common External Tariff (CET) policy.
In line with a global movement toward customs unions, ECOWAS had, at a Heads of State Summit in October 2013, adopted the CET, which is aimed at ensuring that same customs duties will apply to all goods entering ECOWAS member States, regardless of which country within the area they are entering.
ECOWAS Director of Trade, Gbenga Obideyi, said in September 2016, that 10 member states, including Nigeria, had as at then implemented the CET, which came into effect earlier that year. He also disclosed that member states were expected to implement the common tariff within five years.
However, with AFCFTA legally taking effect on May 30th, Rewane, in a presentation obtained by New Telegraph last weekend, stated that while the agreement would significantly boost intra-African trade in addition to bringing other benefits for the continent, it: “Could undermine the setting of CET in ECOWAS.”
The respected economist further noted that subdued growth in Africa’s two largest economies-Nigeria and South Africa- could negatively impact regional and continental trade flows.
According to him, although the agreement could result in Africa having a combined consumer and business spending of $6.7trillion by 2030, “protectionist policies will hinder total elimination of tariffs.”
In addition, he pointed out that more diversified economies with better infrastructure have greater opportunities of benefiting from the pact.
It will be recalled that Nigeria is among three countries that are yet to sign the agreement agreed upon by the 55-member state African Union (AU).
The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) is among several powerful groups in the country opposed to the country signing AFCFTA. They argue that it will lead to the dumping of cheaper imports in Nigeria, thereby leading to shut businesses and job losses.
However, last Thursday, former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, reiterated his call that the Federal Government should sign the agreement.
He said: “ I believe we have enjoyed the time of delay but of course we have no choice than to sign it. I do hope that sincerely before the formal inauguration in Niamey on July 7 and 8, that Nigeria will not be absent at the launching because I see no reason why Nigeria can be present when it has not signed the agreement.
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Several users of Apple devices in Australia have reported that their gadgets have been “hijacked” – with a message demanding money.Experts believed the hack had targeted users by exploiting the Find my iPhone feature.
A message appeared on some targeted phones asking for “$100 ( USD to be sent to a PayPal account.
Networks advised affected users to contact Apple, which denied its cloud storage service had been breached.
“Apple takes security very seriously and iCloud was not compromised during this incident. Impacted users should change their Apple ID password as soon as possible and avoid using the same user name and password for multiple services,” the firm said in a statement to The Register news site.
PayPal has said any funds sent to the specified account would be refunded.


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DuPont has issued a set of commitments regarding health and environmental impacts of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
The commitments represent both new and strengthened positions on sustainability and environmental and chemical stewardship, the company stated in a release.
DuPont has been dealing with long-running environmental issues related to PFAS, which make their way into waterways and water supplies. One DuPont discovery, Teflon, contained PFAS.
DuPont spun off chemical operations using PFAS into Wilmington-based Chemours. Recently Chemours filed suit against DuPont over charges that it did not fully assess environmental liabilities in the spinoff. DuPont has denied those claims.
States have also filed lawsuits regarding the chemicals, with the Union of Concerned Scientists claiming DuPont and 3M failed to disclose evidence of health risks.
Cancer risks have been the subject of study, according to the American Cancer Society.
PFAS are a group of chemicals that includes perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), GenX, and other chemicals that have been used by manufacturers to produce a broad range of industrial and consumer products and firefighting foams dating back to the 1940s.
DuPont no longer makes PFOA, PFOS or GenX. Further, DuPont never manufactured or sold firefighting foam. While its use of other PFAS is a fraction of a percent of the total PFAS used globally, the company is actively pursuing alternatives where possible in its manufacturing processes.
“As a science-based company, DuPont is constantly learning from the past to innovate for the future – in our policies and protocols as well as our products,” said Alexa Dembek, chief technology & sustainability officer, DuPont. “These commitments help ensure our actions align with our expectations for ourselves and the expectations of the communities we serve.”
The company committed to the following:
- Eliminating the use of long-chain PFAS in recently integrated operations by the end of 2019.
- Eliminating the purchase and use of all firefighting foams made with PFAS at our sites by the end of 2021.
- Continued remediation of sites that have a PFA footprint.
- Support the U.S. EPA and global regulatory efforts to develop science-based guidelines for PFAS and commit to meeting these requirements in our global operations.
- Beginning in 2020, the company expects to provide free access to product stewardship software, grant royalty-free licenses to others that want to pursue PFAS remediation using our PFAS water treatment resin technologies, and fund grants to universities and other research institutes for new, innovative PFAS remediation technologies.
- Also beginning in 2020, DuPont expects to add external experts to supplement existing review processes for the use and handling of substances of concern.
- Sharing progress toward meeting the commitments.
“These commitments are designed to strengthen our current chemicals management and stewardship practices so that the new DuPont’s manufacturing and supply chain choices match our commitments to sustainability, our customers and the communities in which we operate,” said Dembek.